TEL student athletes were out in force at both the Scottish and British Universities Championships and as usual there were medals and many great performances.

Aberdeen held the Scottish Champs and top performance went to combined-eventer Zak Fearn (Napier) who threw a massive 55.52m to take gold in the javelin whilst also jumping 6.04m to take 6th in the long jump. Also doubling up and bagging medals were horizontal jumps experts Laura Buchan (Edinburgh) and Erin Hall (Stirling), with Laura jumping 5.22m and 10.88m in LJ and TJ respectively, for two great bronze medals whilst Erin jumped a fantastic 10.92m to secure silver in the TJ and 4.82m for 7th in the LJ.

With field eventers making the podiums there was still time for some track action and this came courtesy of Eily Sinclair (Stirling) and Ella Nicholson (Glasgow) both of whom raced in the 1500m. A personal best of 5.07.07 saw Ella come 7th whilst Eily was 10th in 5.46.70. 

There was a further connection to TEL with Archie Street (Glasgow) who has been training with the TEL combined-events group under Jamie Bowie’s oversight, having a fantastic day with gold medals in the high jump 1.90m, long jump 6.67m and 110m hurdles 15.55s. He also secured gold as part of the men’s 4x100m team and silver in the 4x400m and also had time to throw 28.17m in the discus. 

Well done to all those who made the long journey north and a very promising start to the outdoor season.

Many of the same athletes made the trip south to take part in the British Universities Champs in Manchester and three days of high winds made conditions tricky to say the least. Doubling or tripling up in events was again the flavour of the weekend and a really useful exercise to get some more early season practice against the best student athletes across the UK. 

Combined eventer Adam Hoole (Heriot Watt) came away with the only silverware. After a season’s best 4.42m for 6th in the pole vault, he jumped 7.19m for a bronze medal in the LJ and then a further season’s best to secure the gold medal in the 110m hurdles. Just outside the medals this time was Zak, who threw a massive 58.24m in the javelin to finish in 4th place. He also competed in the PV reaching a height of 3.46m. Laura and Erin were again in jumps action with both just failing to progress from the heats of the LJ and TJ, Erin jumping 4.32m and 10.66m whilst Laura jumped 4.99m and 10.60m. Archie was again in action across three events but also sadly didn’t progress from the heats, jumping 1.88m in the HJ, 6.09m in the LJ and running 15.64s in the 110mH. Alister Mackay (Glasgow) was the final combined eventer competing in three events and he also put in some useful markers for the decathlon season ahead with 37.85m in the discus,16.04s in the 110mH but surprisingly “no-heighting” in the PV. 

It’s always great to see our TEL athletes competing so well on the Scottish and British student stages and as always it wouldn’t happen without the coaching support both at the events themselves and back at home. Thanks to all and hopefully a fantastic outdoor season in store for all our athletes.